An Answer to Ross Douthat

I know that Ross Douthat is supposed to be a tremendously smart man, but when I read something like this, I really wonder.

For a week or so now, I’ve been listening to smart conservatives suggest that Obama’s “spreading the wealth” remark might really, really hurt him – “talk about playing into the most extreme stereotype of your party, that it is infested with socialists,” writes James Pethokoukis – and I have a question: Hasn’t Obama been promising to spread the wealth throughout the entire race – a race he seems to be winning at the moment? His signal domestic-policy proposals are 1) a series of tax cuts and tax credits aimed at Americans making less than $250,000 a year and 2) a big-ticket health care reform aimed at expanding coverage; both of these plans, he promises, can be paid for with tax hikes on the richest 5 percent of Americans. This agenda isn’t a big socialist secret; it’s more or less the basis of his campaign.
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But I’m skeptical that the message has the same resonance when you’re talking about taxes on a business that Joe the Plumber might own someday, as opposed to taxes on the income that he actually earns this year – where Obama’s plan almost certainly lets him keep more cash. And I’m really, really skeptical that Obama’s pro-wealth-spreading response to Joe’s challenge tells voters anything they didn’t already know about the two candidates’ proposals and philosophy.

The reason his statement is resonating now is because, despite heroic efforts by the MSM to make it disappear, it is the first time that most voters have plainly heard that Obama’s plans are socialist.

Can Douthat truly show me where any MSM outlet has dealt honestly with either his so-called tax cut plan or his health care plan? I can’t think of one and it would shock me if he could find as many as three stories in the past six months.

The truth of the matter is that most voters still get their information from television and newspapers, no matter how much we bloggers and technogeeks want it to be otherwise. The media have almost uniformly treated Obama’s campaign commercials as gospel truth. Even the explosion of “Fact Check” segments don’t get the facts right as often as they should. You can hardly blame voters for not thinking Obama’s proposals are socialist when they see little but glowing reviews in the nightly news broadcasts and the front pages of their newspapers. Most folks can’t spend as much time as Douthat can on Obama’s proposals because they’re busy earning a living and spending time with their families. That’s not to say that Douthat doesn’t enjoy his free time. I’m sure he does. But he does have a rather large advantage in that he’s paid to dig into Obama’s economic plans. they have to rely on the media to do a lot of that digging and they’re being very poorly served.

On the point of Joe’s future earning not being such a big deal, I couldn’t differ with Douthat more. Of course the average American cares about the business that Plumber Joe might someday own because they have the same dreams. We’re talking about the American Dream here and when Barack Obama said “spread the wealth” what a lot of Americans heard was “You know that plan you had to better your life? Well, when you get there, I’m going to take it from you”. That’s an incredibly powerful statement and I’d bet Douthat dollars to doughnuts that no one has made it as starkly as Obama did himself.

I’m fairly sure that Douthat is making pretty good money as a paid blogger, a think-tank talking head, and a published author but he didn’t always. I imagine that he dreamed of being in the position he’s in now and I’m willing to bet that he has a few ideas about how he can better his position. Is it really so difficult for him to imagine that a lot of Americans have the same ambitions? Why would he think that wouldn’t matter?

It’s no real shock to me that Obama’s socialist slip is resonating so well with voters. It is the first time they’ve ever heard it unvarnished and unspun. Maybe Douthat needs to spend a little more time around some fairly average ambitious Americans. If he did, he wouldn’t find himself so puzzled that they react poorly when a politician says he’s going to stop them from reaching the American Dream.

(via Jonah Goldberg)

Other Posts of Interest:

• Barack the “Control Rod” Socialist
• Barack Obama Channels Karl Marx in St. Louis
• Umm…Who Were You Talking About, Senator?

Tags: Barack Obama, Taxes

Category: The Economy and Your Money, The Obamessiah